Literary notes about Invective (AI summary)
Invective in literature often operates as a vigorous tool for denouncing subjects in a manner both scathing and rhetorically potent. Writers employ it to articulate moral, political, or personal disapproval with a deliberate force that can range from a restrained avoidance—as in the measured narrative that steadfastly declines to indulge in harsh language ([1])—to an unbridled tirade that unleashes torrents of bitter, often multi-lingual curses ([2]). It appears in the hands of both satirists and polemicists, serving as a key instrument to expose hypocrisy, undermine authority, or heighten dramatic tension ([3], [4]). Whether functioning to punctuate a broader discourse on societal injustices or as a concentrated outburst of individual fervor, invective continues to be valued for its power to cut through decorum and elicit a visceral response in the reader ([5], [6]).
- I now related my history briefly but with firmness and precision, marking the dates with accuracy and never deviating into invective or exclamation.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - And with a climax of invective, hurled forth in a mixture of French, English and Indian, the man raised his hand and struck a hard blow.
— from The Heart of the Red Firs: A Story of the Pacific Northwest by Ada Woodruff Anderson - Strickland employed not the rapier of sarcasm but the bludgeon of invective.
— from The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham - He mounted the tribune, and uttered a long invective on his opponents.
— from Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3) by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron - He immediately broke forth in a storm of invective that scorched the already overheated room.
— from Dick Kent, Fur Trader by M. M. (Milo Milton) Oblinger - The latter is a masterpiece of pure invective; no allowances are made, no lights relieve the darkness of the shadows, the portrait is frankly inhuman.
— from The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems by Alexander Pope
